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Review: A Gay Jar Jar in New "Star Wars" Movie
Oh, Lordy, what were they thinking? There’s a stereotypically “gay”-seeming villain in the new CGI Star Wars movie The Clone Wars that is so offensive and over-the-top that you’re left wondering, “Is George Lucas insane?” This is especially true in light of the widespread criticism the man received for characters perceived as racist in The Phantom Menace: the Caribbean simpleton Jar Jar Binks, scheming “Asian menace”-like characters, and stereotypically Jewish-seeming tightwads. And rest assured, Ziro the Hutt, the gay-seeming character in The Clone Wars, is entirely the work of Lucas himself. Press reports have director Dave Filoni recounting how the character previously sounded completely different, “then George one day was watching it and said ‘I want him to sound like Truman Capote.’”
Jar Jar Binks, Watto, Nute Gunray Hutt sounds exactly like Truman Capote — one of the most famous openly gay men of all time — who spoke with a lisping southern accent. But unlike Capote, Ziro also wears make-up, feathers, jewelry, and is covered in body tattoos. Whenever he appears, it’s in purple shadows with an undertone of languid, sex-infused jazz playing in the background of the nightclub he manages. He’s also a villain through and through: a scheming traitor willing to kill even a child without thought. But like so many gay-seeming villains before him, he’s also a pathetic coward, losing all dignity at the first hint of the collapse of his nefarious plot. To be fair, the character of Ziro the Hutt is small, with just a couple of scenes. And at no point does the movie come right out and say he is gay, but it is almost impossible to read him any other way. And it’s noteworthy that in Lucas’ entire Star Wars oeuvre of seven full-length feature films (and various other TV incarnations), there has never been a living gay character until this one, which falls right in line with the long tradition of Hollywood's use of gender-nonconformity to make the audience feel discomfort, even revulsion, with a villainous character.
It’s particularly disappointing that this character is in a movie that seems aimed squarely at kids. A spin-off series will debut October third on the Cartoon Network. What a horrible message to deliver to young people: those who don’t conform to traditional gender norms are evil, disgusting cowards. I always thought the Star Wars universe and Lucas himself deserved major kudos for the robot character of C3PO. Yes, he was a fussy, cowardly character, played with a prissy, often annoying voice. But the character was ultimately endearing — one of the very few characters Hollywood has ever created where an effeminate character is not portrayed as an object of derision or revulsion. This was an especially courageous move given that the primary audience of Star Wars was probably teenage boys. All that goodwill goes right out the airlock with the character of Ziro. I don’t think Lucas is personally homophobic, but this movie, like The Phantom Menace before it, makes him seem almost pathologically clueless.
George Lucas, C3PO
Photo credit: Getty Images/Frazer Harrison/WireImage/Jeffrey Mayer/ Getty/Images/Frazer Harrison
The movie itself? Don’t ask. Lucas left any trace of wit, intelligence, or fun back in the original three Star Wars movies and has been operating on the sheer momentum from the creative explosion that was that original trilogy ever since. There’s nothing remotely approximating the genius that is a light saber or the whole concept of The Force in any in the three “prequels” or in this latest movie. The only reason to see The Clone Wars is to marvel at the colossally bad judgment that led to Ziro the Hutt. But trust me, that definitely isn’t reason enough. Submitted by on Mon, 2008-08-18 21:13.  Ziro is FineSubmitted by
Shade (10 points) (2 posts) on Wed, 2008-09-03 17:21.I saw Clone Wars and I have to say I think the reaction here is over the top Clone Wars, much like the Droids and Ewoks tv series, is aimed more at an audience of children. Much of the film's humor, the cutsey son of Jabba, and the inclusion of the jedi apprentice Ashoka make this something they can embrace. The article states that there has never been a gay character in a Star Wars film before Ziro. To be fair though, there have been very few romantic relationships in Star Wars of any kind. We can't really call Ziro gay because: 1) He doesn't have any relationships in the film and 2) in our own galaxy heterosexual men often cross-dress. Ziro is simpering and malicious, but this makes him an interesting contrast to the film's two main villains who are both quiet, icy killers. He seems most like a scheming drag queen and gay media has always had a lot of fun with scheming drag queen characters. Also (spoiler alert stop readiong if you don't want to be surprised) Ziro's plans are thwarted by the Star Wars universe's reigning gay guy - C-3PO. I would be happier if the Star Wars universe included a dashing, openly-gay Jedi knight or bounty hunter that was the epitome of Sci-Fi cool. Some day, I believe it will. Until then I am really not at all put off by Ziro in all his huttese campiness. |
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One other Star Wars queer voice
Sorry to hear about that Ziro the Hutt character.
There is of course one other famous queer voice in the Star Wars universe. Jedi Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi from the first three films was portrayed by bisexual actor Alec Guiness.
G.L.A.D.D
George Lucas is insane. He's been living in that moutain compound for so long he's forgetten what it's like in the real world. It's not like anyone is ever going to tell him he's wrong. He still think's it 's the 50's for goodness sakes.
The fact that he keeps making the same movie and telling the same story over and over again is proof. How many more clone wars movies and tv shows do we need. WE GET IT ALREADY!
By the way. Where is G.L.A.D.D when you need them?
To turn that around ...
... where are you when GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, not G.L.A.D.D) needs you? It's not like the organization is some serving wench on call to take care of your whims. Get involved and let them know what you're doing to participate in the fight against our defamation -- and find out where, in fact, they are. When and where you need them.
Ask not
What GLAAD can do for you. Ask what you can do for GLAAD.
And don't forget to bring your checkbook.
He's a hutt their all
Except he isn't all powerful. He's a sniveling coward
Plain Old Laziness
AS A fan....
The mythology is that C3P-O is gay and R2D2 is a lesbian. Both are wonderful characters, and, in a sense, the entire sage is told from the perspective of droids. I think that part of the problem is that Lucas is a man who grew up in a very different America -- in terms of civil rights and how Hollywood and tv dealt with women and minorties of all kinds.
Also Jar Jar was initially accused of being both a racist and a anti-gay cliche. Their was already a gay Jar Jar and it was Jar Jar. Science fiction and fantasy can do better, -- in terms of characters, storyline and human diversity and themes -- it all depends on the author, audience and format.
I have always been a big fan of a series of 'juvenile' fiction by a man -- who used the fake name -- John Christoper. His science fiction work often deals with very very complex and deep questions.
http://www.geocities.com/edwardtjbrown
skip the movie and get the TV series
Let Aliens be Aliens?
A really good point is also made in Lyle's blog post about how Lucas has bestowed more and more human qualities to his aliens since the debut of the prequils:
"So how did a character who wasn’t even supposed to speak English wind up sounding like that? Because George Lucas insisted on it, Clone Wars director Dave Filoni confessed."
And After Elton reader, Psionycx, goes further to comment that "Part of what was cool about the original trilogy was the fact that the aliens were alien! They almost never spoke English and their voices and mannerisms were not identifiably aligned with any real world human grounds."
I have to agree that is something that I do miss and thouroughly enjoyed about Lucas' earlier films. All the growlling, snorting, and strange clicks and signals and languages that non-humans used to communicate! It was always part of the joy of watching those movies, and secretly wanting to learn some foreign space alien language. Heck, even Princess Leia spoke with an incredible garbled voice when disguised as a bounty hunter Boushh!
Maybe some aliens would have a universal translator of sorts, but not all of them. Remember how Jabba the Hutt had a translator/ Major Domo, Bib Fortuna, that passed information between Jabba and an audience? And were Hutts even physically capable of human speech? I don't think Hutts had lips?!
But assuming that Ziro could speak English, why does this Hutt speak like Truman Capote? Well, maybe this Hutt has a strange fascination with eccentric humans and thinks it's a strange way to catch his enemy off guard?? Or maybe there's some crazy backstory we don't know yet that tells how he was born with this strange voice or was a victim of some strange accident or poison that scarred his vocal cords?
And is it ever established if Hutts are male and female? Maybe Hutt creatures are more like earthworms? Maybe Hutt creatures are both male and female or can naturally change their sex? I am not very knowledgeable on the details in this universe, but I leave it open to imagination.
Ultimately, I think Lucas is pretty much clueless, and acting on his own whims. I believe these stories are to capture imaginations, develop new animation/ technology, and sell toys/licensing deals. I was and still am a big fan of the first three films, but I don't really enjoy much of what's come since.
I am not thrilled by what I see with this Ziro character but not entirely sure what's going on. I'd be interested in hearing kids reactions to seeing this film. I didn't ever think C3-PO was gay until I was in my late teens. As a kid I just thought C3-PO was a super cool, frendly robot. It seems crazy, but maybe kids won't see Ziro as a homosexual but as a bizarre, theatrical slug??
I am interested in seeing Ziro in action and seeing this film, but I am most definitely waiting for the rental or see it on TV if I do see this at all.
Hutts are Hermaphrodites
Acording to Wookiepedia
"Hutts were hermaphroditic, and as a result, gender was more of a case of a Hutt's deliberate decision or a viewer's deduction. Often, Hutts carrying children were referred to as female, though it was entirely up to the Hutt in question as to if the distinction was accepted or not. For instance, Jiliac was referred to as a female after becoming pregnant, but Popara and Zorba still considered themselves males after birthing their respective children."
I honestly think this sort of thing could be interesting. For instance species of aliens that are hermaphrodites. Species that can change thier gender at some point lke clown fish can. Males that give birth like sea horses do. Or species where the females are larger than the males, instead of all aliens having the same dimorphism as humans. Female hyenas are bigger and badder than the males, and many non mamalian creatures.
I'm sure there would be aliens where a human couldn't tell the male from female, or the male would be beautiful and flashy while the female was plain like birds. (As apposed to Twileks where the girls are all fanboy fodder and the males are eew. Honestly how does that species reproduce when the males can't intice the females?)
Nature is diverse and strange. So you'd think the universe would be as all. Populated not by strong males, and smaller weaker females, but all sorts of gender dimorphism, or lack of (a species where attraction is all pharamones which humans can't pick up, and genitalia like most repiles where you can't tell by looking). I think it would be interesting to see scifi where all gender norms are thrown out the window because aliens wouldn't have them.
But that's where Lucas has been copping out
He's been increasingly assigning human characteristics to aliens, rather than making them distinctive.
When Jabba was introduced few concessions were made to given him/her/it any human(oid) characteristics. Jabba was visibly non-humanoid, spoke Huttese rather than Basic and didn't bother with clothes or any kind of personal adornments typical of more humanoid races. He was a Hutt, pure and simple, and not inclined to imitate or emulate other species.
But this alieness has been reduced in later materials. More effort is being put into making aliens recognizable in human terms by applying human stereotypes, language and gender roles. At least in any of the material that Lucas has supervised creation of.
Lucas's Infantile Sense of Comedy
The problem seems to be that in the intervening years since the first trilogy Lucas thinks he's become funny.
In the original trilogy Lucas made most of the aliens speak in "alien" languages to add a sense of realism to the fantastical setting that was being presented onscreen. The movies were melodrama to be sure, but they were done so that they could at least be taken reasonably seriously. Most of the humor was light and incidental.
The second trilogy was different. Lucas seemed to have set out to make a bunch of kid's movies and so he relied more on special effects than on writing. He also inserted more cartoonish characters. Finally, there were pointless scenes of slapstick comedy that he thought were funny but which were really cringe-worthy.
Quality went down the toilet in the prequels and so did the appeal. There were lots of video game style scenes to appeal to the visual senses but not much else.
But after dabbling in old-fashioned racist stereotypes should we really be surprised that he's gone for an anti-gay one too?
Lucas the H(sl)utt
Why am I not surprised?
I remember seeing Phantom Menace and thinking, "OMG... is it just me? Am I the only one seeing this???"
If he had ANY nuts what so ever it would feature a gay/lesbian Jedi. Not a cheap and obvious rip off of Capote.
'Nuff Said True Believers
Indigo
Ziro the Hutt
As a long time Star Wars fan as well a a bisexual I just had to respond to this article. First let me start by saying that I have not yet seen the Clone Wars movie, so I don't exactly now how 'bad' Ziro is.
Why is a Homosexual character in a Star Wars movie such a bad thing?
Ziro is a Hutt, Hutt's are hermaphrodites. They can decide to be male or female, so the concept of hetero and homosexuality is unknown to them. You pick a partner and when one is pregnant that one becomes the female. So for a Hutt there should be no difference between male of female, which could mean they are all bisexual... But let's remind here that we are talking about a Alien race (ok, a Fictional Alien race), and they can not be compared to humans.
As for Ziro, the first ever openly homosexual star wars character, being discribed as a villain and a coward, and this being a bad representation of a homosexual, is nonsense! Ziro does not represent a homosexual, good or bad, he represents a Hutt and a fairly typical Hutt at that. Hutts are the gangters of the Star Wars universe, they are a backstabbing, double crossing race. And I don't think the character was chosen to be gay because he's a Hutt. He could have been anything. Maybe George Lucas thought it was high time to include homosexuality in his universe.
I certainly don't think Lucas is a fool, his original movies could not have endured and inspired if they would've been made by a madman who's out of touch with reality.
As a bi Star Wars fan I have been annoyed at the near total absense of anything but hetero sexuality (there is one other character who is not-straight. The game 'Knights of the Old Republic' introduced a character named Juhani who fell in love with the player-character, which could be male or female. In new versions of the game this 'error' has been corrected, but Juhani's love interest in the male or female player can still be red on starwars.com). Series like Torchwood shows that SF and bi/homosexuality can work perfectly together. It always bothered me in Star Wars that in such a diverse universe homosexuality didn't seem to exist, even though there are enough examples of mixed-race loves (like human/alien or alien/alien).
The fact that The Clone Wars is seen as a kid movie is also incorrect, Lucas wanted it to be for kids as well as adults, and reviews so far seem to support that. It is also the pilot for the Animated tv-series, which will hopefully shed more light on the character of Ziro and the reasons for him being as he is. I, for one, would like to give Ziro a chance, not because I'm a blind-follower-of-Lucas, but because I hope things are about to change in Star Wars and maybe Ziro will be the first step in the right direction.
Ziro the Hero (and yes, that's a joke too)
I think Cameo and Vampirerichard are right.
Lucas is no more mocking gay men as he's mocking the English (all Imperials have English accents). Ziro's part of the same tradition that all of Lucas' film-school roots come from. The original Jabba is based on Sydney Greestreet's performance of Casper Gutman in the Maltese Falcon. Lucas likes to dig into the past for inspiration. He probably thought a transgender Hutt with Capote's voice would be an amusing character. And I agree. I think he's hilarious.
Jabba comes from an eccentric family. His father Zorba has long hair and braided beards! His other uncle is his aunt Jiliac. Jabba himself has a taste for dancing Twileks!
And in point, Ziro's not gay. As has been pointed out, Hutts are hermaphrodites that can change sex at will. I understand, he may be seen as a gay stereotype and the fear is that because he's villainous and cowardly, he'll send the wrong message to kids.
In all honesty, though, I think most kids will just find him a funny or silly character. In fact, he's the most amusing, freespirited and fun character in the whole film. The REAL villains of the SW Universe are all white, straight males (though some female ones like Asajj have emerged over the years, especially in the books and comics): Palpatine, Dooku, Tarkin, Anakin.
And as far as positive gay characters in the SW universe, true, there aren't a lot, but the few that are there are prominent in the Expanded Universe:
It's strongly implied that Ferus Olin is gay and in a committed, loving relationship with Roan Lands. And Ferus has all the positive traits a hero should have, as well as the requisite imperfections of a three-dimensional human. He was also given 10 novellas in which he starred (The Last of the Jedi series).
As far as openly gay characters, Karen Traviss (who incidentally wrote the novelization for the Clone Wars film), prominently included two male gay Mandalorians (a warrior race of which Boba Fett is one) named Goran Beviin and Medrit Vasur. Goran and Medrit are men's men, tough combatant types on a planet of the same. That they're openly in a romantic, committed relationship with one another, and have adopted kids also doesn't cause ANY of the characters who meet them to blink an eye. They also appear in the very high profile nine-book Star Wars: Legacy series by Del Rey (starting in Bloodlines).
The examples are few, but it's more than can be said for a LOT of sci-fi/fantasy universes.
I keep reading this
Read my books! Explore "Brent's Brain" at http://www.brenthartinger.com no votes